sent by email to Wikileaks News and Updates Blog
WikiLeaks Lessons: The Party of We — Already in Control
Douglas Wood
January 13, 2011
In November 2010, I wrote an op-ed for CorpCounsel.com hypothesizing that Facebook, Google and RIM were more like virtual countries than they were global corporations, capable of exercising powers common to sovereign nations and not private industry.
Facebook, with a citizen population of over 500 million, is now the third largest nation in the world behind China and India. Google's knowledge base, accessible at lightning speed, is larger than anything maintained by any government in history. RIM's Blackberry continues to be the communication choice for international commerce.
Also See: FULL WikiLeaks Coverage | FULL Expert Archive
If that weren't enough, the personal data and tracking information in the possession and control of these three Internet nations makes the databases of any other nations on Earth look like paperback dictionaries.
The new nations of Facebook, Google and RIM have the power to control who has access, what they can distribute, and what they see. Their populations are without borders, independent, and virtual, something never before experienced.
So far, the global discourse has been balanced and fair. But the line differentiating between balanced and fair and arbitrary and dangerous is a very fine one. Is the tipping point between them on the precipice? Is a global revolution coming? Or has it already begun?
As I wrote in my November op-ed, to understand this critical tipping point in context, we need to take a lesson from history.
In 1773, a small group of revolutionaries, weary of an oppressive, distant government, held a little party in Boston by tossing crates of tea off boats in the harbor.
In 2010, another small group of self-proclaimed revolutionaries weary of what they perceived to be an oppressive, distant government held their own parties around the nation and planted an idea that influenced the nation's citizens on both sides of the political spectrum as much as the Boston Tea Party did centuries earlier in Boston.
Whether it was the Tea Party of 1773 or the Tea Party of today, the same basic principle applies to both — people united in a cause, even an unpopular one, can change the course of history. They just need a voice.
Historical changes can be breathtaking in enormity, even when they seem small in scale. In the past few weeks, we witnessed actions by a group of dissidents that seemed small, when in truth its impact was enormous. It was a tipping point that we cannot afford to let go unnoticed. Yet it was inevitable and, frankly, predictable, as works of fiction so often show us. Click here if you doubt me.
Enter Julian Assange and his Wikileaks crusade. While he's been heralded by some and vilified by others, no one can deny the impact of his small band of comrades. But it is not the politics of what Assange set loose or the danger it may or may not have caused that is the critical point.
What's most important is the tipping point, spawned not by Assange but by a new body politic — a new party of individuals bonded by commonality of interest not defined by national or geographic boundaries. The Party of We.
In response to the attacks on Wikileaks, this virtual We Party, comprised of citizens of the world, unleashed an unprecedented — and united — attack on parts of the infrastructure that transact payments and sustain eCommerce and for a brief moment shut critical parts of it down.
This was unprecedented not because it hasn't been tried before (even with some success), but because its success, however brief the moment may have been, was only reversed by those who started it and who had a change of heart. Furthermore, it was novel in its motivation not to hack a system or engage in fraud or greed, but rather in support of a cause — a belief in the idea and purity of unencumbered speech.
A small group of Assange's disciples, dedicated to transparency and open source regardless of its implication, struck with today's most potent version of a WMD — the concerted flooding of the broadband, the circulatory system of the Internet, to a point where it went into cardiac arrest. And this was done by a relatively small group of dissidents. A group smaller than the ones that started the tea parties in 1773 and 2010.
But this group has far more power than either of their predecessors and, if united in sufficient number, are unstoppable!
We — the people of the Internet — are united in a principle of freedom that challenges core philosophies of virtually every terrestrial nation on earth. Indeed, forget the debate over whether the FCC's recent ruling on net neutrality is good or bad. The real point is that whatever its purpose may be, it's too little too late. The Party of We is in control.
You (e.g., the FCC) are not in control. Extend your sovereignty in conflict with the right of We to know what We wants to know, and You risk disruption of Your economies, Your communications, Your infrastructure. Disruption that not only challenges authority but that will cost You millions, perhaps billions.
We knows no sovereign authority. The power of We is virtual and without limit when exercised in a united front. MasterCard, PayPal, and other global financial institutions felt the wrath of We in December 2010 — the tipping point. The world witnessed the rise of the Party of We.
We can communicate instantaneously to its community of over 500 million citizens on Facebook — a community that may well reach a billion in a few years. We can access all the information We needs to know from the free global library on Google, global encyclopedia on Wikipedia, and global photographic and image repository on Flickr. And whatever We needs to globally communicate, We need only send an e-mail, tweet a tweet, post a comment or video, or get LinkedIn. And it doesn't cost We a dime to do so.
But the most profound lesson in this tipping point is that while We responded responsibly and backed off the financial shutdown once the citizens of We decided they'd made a mistake and attacked innocent parties, there is no guarantee that We will always act responsibly. Or worse, We might cause unprecedented damage before We corrects its course.
Because unlike the tea parties of 1773 and 2010, the Party of We has only one plank in its platform — transparency. That is far more powerful than anything colonists in 1773 or Tea Party revelers in 2010 could conceive. And there is no defense short of shutting down the Internet and sending the world's economy back to the Dark Ages of the 20th Century.
The rise of the Party of We is the most profound tipping point in global discourse since the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia that first established the concept of sovereign nations, something we can now count as the latest entry on the list of endangered species.
Wood is a partner in the New York office of Reed Smith. He specializes in media and entertainment law and is editor of Network Interference — a Legal Guide to the Commercial Risks and Rewards of the Social Media Phenomenon, a White Paper on how social media globally impacts every level of business. The White Paper is available here. Wood can be reached at dwood@reedsmith.com or through LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
Julian Assange
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Assange could end up in Guantanamo Bay if Extradited
Assange appears in Court
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has appeared in a London court as part of his fight against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on sexual misconduct charges.
It was the first time Assange had appeared in court since being released on bail on December 16, after surrendering to British police who wanted him on an European arrest warrant issued by Sweden.
His lawyers argued that there is a "real risk" that if extradited to Sweden, Assange may be sent on to the United States, where the lawyers said he could be detained at Guantanamo Bay or even face the death penalty.
Assange and his supporters say the 39-year-old Australian computer expert is being pursued because he has infuriated Washington by releasing details of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website.
The court decided that Sweden's extradition request will be examined at the next hearing on February 7-8.
Courtesy of Radio Free Europe
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has appeared in a London court as part of his fight against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on sexual misconduct charges.
It was the first time Assange had appeared in court since being released on bail on December 16, after surrendering to British police who wanted him on an European arrest warrant issued by Sweden.
His lawyers argued that there is a "real risk" that if extradited to Sweden, Assange may be sent on to the United States, where the lawyers said he could be detained at Guantanamo Bay or even face the death penalty.
Assange and his supporters say the 39-year-old Australian computer expert is being pursued because he has infuriated Washington by releasing details of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website.
The court decided that Sweden's extradition request will be examined at the next hearing on February 7-8.
Courtesy of Radio Free Europe
Monday, January 10, 2011
Assange due in court soon
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks' founder will appear in a London court on Tuesday avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning about alleged sex crimes.
This is mainly procedural hearing at the top security Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, due to start at 1000 GMT (3 p.m. EST), and is likely to confirm the date for a full extradition hearing expected in about three to four weeks time in February.
According to Reuters, The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, has protested his innocence over claims of sexual misconduct against two women.
"The hearing on Tuesday is to ensure that the real issues in the case are identified and that preparation of the case is progressing in a timely fashion," said a spokesman for Britain's courts service.
It will also decide elements of the legal process, such as which documents the prosecutors and defense lawyers should provide and whether any witnesses should be called up.
British police arrested Assange last month on a European warrant issued by Sweden following allegations made by two WikiLeaks' volunteers.
After spending nine days in jail, he was released on bail on December 16 after his supporters raised a surety of 200,000 pounds ($312,000).
As part of his bail conditions, Assange must stay at a mansion in eastern England, abide by a curfew, report to police daily and wear an electronic tag. Assange has described the curbs on him as "hi-tech house arrest."
This is mainly procedural hearing at the top security Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, due to start at 1000 GMT (3 p.m. EST), and is likely to confirm the date for a full extradition hearing expected in about three to four weeks time in February.
According to Reuters, The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, has protested his innocence over claims of sexual misconduct against two women.
"The hearing on Tuesday is to ensure that the real issues in the case are identified and that preparation of the case is progressing in a timely fashion," said a spokesman for Britain's courts service.
It will also decide elements of the legal process, such as which documents the prosecutors and defense lawyers should provide and whether any witnesses should be called up.
British police arrested Assange last month on a European warrant issued by Sweden following allegations made by two WikiLeaks' volunteers.
After spending nine days in jail, he was released on bail on December 16 after his supporters raised a surety of 200,000 pounds ($312,000).
As part of his bail conditions, Assange must stay at a mansion in eastern England, abide by a curfew, report to police daily and wear an electronic tag. Assange has described the curbs on him as "hi-tech house arrest."
Anon to Hit the Streets over Wikileaks
Protestors associated with the online activism group Anonymous will hit the streets of London twice this week, in criticism of Scientology and in support of Julian Assange according to The Register(R)
"Buoyed by its current high profile, a result of interest in its recent DDoS attacks on Visa, MasterCard and Amazon, the group has issued a call for global action, drenched in freedom-fighting rhetoric.
Declaring "we are done waiting for someone to save us from tyranny and censorship" - accompanied by an angry rock soundtrack - Anonymous members will on Saturday target Scientology buildings in London.
International gatherings on the 15th will be in direct support of WikiLeaks, but UK activists have an appointment with Assange earlier in the week.
Anonymous is a long-term enemy of the Church of Scientology, citing its aggressive suppression of critics online. The activists attracted attention for the first time almost three years ago when they briefly shut down the controversial organisation's website.
That attack was followed in 2008 in London and other cities by a series of protests outside Scientology buildings, but in more recent years Anonymous has concentrated efforts online, against the entertainment industry and other elements its members believe damage internet freedom.
"The internet needs champions and we will rise," the video promoting this week's renewed real world action warns.
Before Saturday, Anonymous members will protest against Sweden's attempt to extradite Julian Assange in relation to alleged sex crimes, which he denies. The Wikileaks founder is due in Belmarsh Magistrates' Court tomorrow for the preliminary hearing, having spent the festive period on bail at a manor house in East Anglia.
The protest outside the court is not being organised by Anonymous, and will be attended by disparate Assange-supporters. However, it's likely many will wear Anonymous' signature Guy Fawkes mask, borrowed from V for Vendetta."
"Buoyed by its current high profile, a result of interest in its recent DDoS attacks on Visa, MasterCard and Amazon, the group has issued a call for global action, drenched in freedom-fighting rhetoric.
Declaring "we are done waiting for someone to save us from tyranny and censorship" - accompanied by an angry rock soundtrack - Anonymous members will on Saturday target Scientology buildings in London.
International gatherings on the 15th will be in direct support of WikiLeaks, but UK activists have an appointment with Assange earlier in the week.
Anonymous is a long-term enemy of the Church of Scientology, citing its aggressive suppression of critics online. The activists attracted attention for the first time almost three years ago when they briefly shut down the controversial organisation's website.
That attack was followed in 2008 in London and other cities by a series of protests outside Scientology buildings, but in more recent years Anonymous has concentrated efforts online, against the entertainment industry and other elements its members believe damage internet freedom.
"The internet needs champions and we will rise," the video promoting this week's renewed real world action warns.
Before Saturday, Anonymous members will protest against Sweden's attempt to extradite Julian Assange in relation to alleged sex crimes, which he denies. The Wikileaks founder is due in Belmarsh Magistrates' Court tomorrow for the preliminary hearing, having spent the festive period on bail at a manor house in East Anglia.
The protest outside the court is not being organised by Anonymous, and will be attended by disparate Assange-supporters. However, it's likely many will wear Anonymous' signature Guy Fawkes mask, borrowed from V for Vendetta."
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Assange back in Prison
Assange is back in prison where he is being held pending extradition to Sweden "for his own safety" claim British authorities. According to one of his lawyers yesterday. "The prison authorities are doing it for his own safety, presumably," lawyer Jennifer Robinson told the press yesterday.
She said the 39-year-old Australian was moved to the segregation unit of Wandsworth prison in southwest London on Thursday, two days after he was taken to the jail.
The lawyer complained that Assange "does not get any recreation, he has difficulties getting phone calls out, he is on his own."
"Obviously we are trying to prepare a legal appeal and he has difficulties hand writing, so it would be much easier in order to assist us in the preparation if he had a laptop," Robinson said. Authorities do not allow laptops in prison however.
Geoffrey Robertson, a high-profile British-Australian human rights lawyer and QC, stated, Assange was in "very good" spirits but was "frustrated" he could not answer the allegations that WikiLeaks was behind cyber attacks launched on credit card firms which have refused to do business with the website.
"He told me he is absolutely not involved and this is a deliberate attempt to conflate WikiLeaks, which is a publishing organisation, with hacking organisations which are not." commented Robertson.
She said the 39-year-old Australian was moved to the segregation unit of Wandsworth prison in southwest London on Thursday, two days after he was taken to the jail.
The lawyer complained that Assange "does not get any recreation, he has difficulties getting phone calls out, he is on his own."
"Obviously we are trying to prepare a legal appeal and he has difficulties hand writing, so it would be much easier in order to assist us in the preparation if he had a laptop," Robinson said. Authorities do not allow laptops in prison however.
Geoffrey Robertson, a high-profile British-Australian human rights lawyer and QC, stated, Assange was in "very good" spirits but was "frustrated" he could not answer the allegations that WikiLeaks was behind cyber attacks launched on credit card firms which have refused to do business with the website.
"He told me he is absolutely not involved and this is a deliberate attempt to conflate WikiLeaks, which is a publishing organisation, with hacking organisations which are not." commented Robertson.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Twitter Subpoena'd over WikiLeaks
The latest news is that a Magistrate in Virginia has ordered twitter to hand over any and all information it has on five users including Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks and the Army’s Pfc. Bradley Manning, one-time Baghdad, Iraq-based intelligence analyst accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. government documents.
The subpoena was issued on the 14th of December but was only unsealed this Wednesday past at Twitter's request so that it could notify the persons whose records had been demanded.
As well as Assange and Manning, the subpoena also seeks the records of one Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland's parliament and a former volunteer for WikiLeaks; Rop Gonggrijp, the well-known Dutch computer programmer whose surname the subpoena misspelled as Gongrijp and so will possibly have to be reissued, and Jacob Appelbaum, an American WikiLeaks supporter who is not identified by name, but whose Twitter username, ioerror, is used to identify the account. Two other usernames are listed to identify the accounts sought: rop - g and birgittaj.
The subpoena was made public in an interview with the British newspaper the Guardian by Jonsdottir. made public the subpoena in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian and posted on the paper's website on Friday. Both WikiLeaks and Gonggrijp confirmed the subpoena in tweets and blog posts on Saturday.
The subpoena asks Twitter for "records of any activity to and from the accounts," including the size of files that may have been transferred to them or from them as well as IP addresses and any other account information. The subpoena also requests this information from the 1st of November 2009. A time when Manning was still working in Baghdad. He was arrested in May after WikiLeaks posted in April a video taken from a U.S. helicopter as it fired on and killed innocent people including two employees of the Reuters news agency in Baghdad. Assange, Jonsdottir and Gonggrijp were listed as the producers of that famous WikiLeaks report, titled "Collateral Murder."
Late Friday, Appelbaum warned followers in a Twitter post not to message him privately. Then, on Saturday, Gonggrijp posted on his blog, rop.gonggri.jp, a copy of what he said was Twitter's notification about the subpoena.
In the notification, which was addressed to Gonggrijp by his Twitter username, Twitter said it would surrender the records to the Justice Department on Jan. 17 "unless we receive notice from you that a motion to quash the legal process has been filed or that this matter has been otherwise resolved."
Gonggrijp did not mention if he would challenge the subpoena. He did praise Twitter for notifying its users of the government demand. "It appears that twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing in wanting to inform their users when one of these comes in," he wrote. "Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me."
WikiLeaks said subpoenas had likely also had been sent to Facebook, where the WikiLeaks page has more than a million followers, but there was no confirmation of that claim.
According to The Kansas Star, subpoenas mark an intensification of the Justice Department's efforts to tie WikiLeaks and Assange to Manning, who is currently jailed at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., facing charges that could send him to prison, if convicted, for 52 years. Pentagon officials have said that while prosecutors believe the files Manning is accused of downloading were passed to WikiLeaks, they have yet to establish a direct link between Manning and Assange. Without that link, it may be difficult to charge Assange with a crime in connection with the ongoing publication of the documents by the website.
More information at:http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/08/2569812/us-seeks-twitter-info-on-wikileaks.html
The subpoena was issued on the 14th of December but was only unsealed this Wednesday past at Twitter's request so that it could notify the persons whose records had been demanded.
As well as Assange and Manning, the subpoena also seeks the records of one Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland's parliament and a former volunteer for WikiLeaks; Rop Gonggrijp, the well-known Dutch computer programmer whose surname the subpoena misspelled as Gongrijp and so will possibly have to be reissued, and Jacob Appelbaum, an American WikiLeaks supporter who is not identified by name, but whose Twitter username, ioerror, is used to identify the account. Two other usernames are listed to identify the accounts sought: rop - g and birgittaj.
The subpoena was made public in an interview with the British newspaper the Guardian by Jonsdottir. made public the subpoena in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian and posted on the paper's website on Friday. Both WikiLeaks and Gonggrijp confirmed the subpoena in tweets and blog posts on Saturday.
The subpoena asks Twitter for "records of any activity to and from the accounts," including the size of files that may have been transferred to them or from them as well as IP addresses and any other account information. The subpoena also requests this information from the 1st of November 2009. A time when Manning was still working in Baghdad. He was arrested in May after WikiLeaks posted in April a video taken from a U.S. helicopter as it fired on and killed innocent people including two employees of the Reuters news agency in Baghdad. Assange, Jonsdottir and Gonggrijp were listed as the producers of that famous WikiLeaks report, titled "Collateral Murder."
Late Friday, Appelbaum warned followers in a Twitter post not to message him privately. Then, on Saturday, Gonggrijp posted on his blog, rop.gonggri.jp, a copy of what he said was Twitter's notification about the subpoena.
In the notification, which was addressed to Gonggrijp by his Twitter username, Twitter said it would surrender the records to the Justice Department on Jan. 17 "unless we receive notice from you that a motion to quash the legal process has been filed or that this matter has been otherwise resolved."
Gonggrijp did not mention if he would challenge the subpoena. He did praise Twitter for notifying its users of the government demand. "It appears that twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing in wanting to inform their users when one of these comes in," he wrote. "Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me."
WikiLeaks said subpoenas had likely also had been sent to Facebook, where the WikiLeaks page has more than a million followers, but there was no confirmation of that claim.
According to The Kansas Star, subpoenas mark an intensification of the Justice Department's efforts to tie WikiLeaks and Assange to Manning, who is currently jailed at the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., facing charges that could send him to prison, if convicted, for 52 years. Pentagon officials have said that while prosecutors believe the files Manning is accused of downloading were passed to WikiLeaks, they have yet to establish a direct link between Manning and Assange. Without that link, it may be difficult to charge Assange with a crime in connection with the ongoing publication of the documents by the website.
More information at:http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/08/2569812/us-seeks-twitter-info-on-wikileaks.html
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Long Term Effects of Wikileaks
It is true that the world will never be the same again. Now that a precedent has been set we can expect more leaks, more exposure, indeed, more calls for transparency and not necessarily just from Wikileaks. Others will now jump on the bandwagon including other countries.
Governments will be forced to change how they operate and the question is how will they do that? Will there be more transparency, or will government departments work towards a greater degree of security. I think we all know the answer to that one.
Government is about control. In some cases it is almost an obsession. No control equals anarchy in the eyes of some. Even though those societies where the individual is encouraged to assume more responsibility, there is less need of a nanny state and less need of control of the population. Sweden springs to mind as an example here.
But we are not living in such an enlightened age. Increase controls are the norm. An increased nanny state psychosis is now running rampant in many western governments and out and out suppress and control the population in some others.
Given the over the top reaction by the US government to wikileaks, it is very unlikely that the promised transparency by the US President will ever materialise. In fact his promises, moving out of Afghanistan, closing Guantánamo Bay, more transparency, etc, have all been shown to mean diddlysquat and it does not take a wikileaks cable exposure to see what HIS opinion of the American people really is.
Governments do not believe in transparency. They believe in control through ignorance
Prediction: Governments will likely tighten up and restrict even more their private doings and dealings. Secrecy will continue to be the order of the day. More and more information will be reclassified as secret and a broader range of classification will be formed. Heavier penalties will be applied for security leaks and less justice and more force will be applied.
indeed, the world will never be the same again.
Governments will be forced to change how they operate and the question is how will they do that? Will there be more transparency, or will government departments work towards a greater degree of security. I think we all know the answer to that one.
Government is about control. In some cases it is almost an obsession. No control equals anarchy in the eyes of some. Even though those societies where the individual is encouraged to assume more responsibility, there is less need of a nanny state and less need of control of the population. Sweden springs to mind as an example here.
But we are not living in such an enlightened age. Increase controls are the norm. An increased nanny state psychosis is now running rampant in many western governments and out and out suppress and control the population in some others.
Given the over the top reaction by the US government to wikileaks, it is very unlikely that the promised transparency by the US President will ever materialise. In fact his promises, moving out of Afghanistan, closing Guantánamo Bay, more transparency, etc, have all been shown to mean diddlysquat and it does not take a wikileaks cable exposure to see what HIS opinion of the American people really is.
Governments do not believe in transparency. They believe in control through ignorance
Prediction: Governments will likely tighten up and restrict even more their private doings and dealings. Secrecy will continue to be the order of the day. More and more information will be reclassified as secret and a broader range of classification will be formed. Heavier penalties will be applied for security leaks and less justice and more force will be applied.
indeed, the world will never be the same again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)